KS Adventures

Here is the point where I try to look all cocsmopolitan and fail utterly!

I had to keep reminding myself to shut my mouth!  It started out pretty well-driving thrugh the Loess Hills in Iowa is so very pretty-and nice open interstate too.  I pulled up some of my obscure knowledge to impress my son and told him a few of the wonders of those hills–Iowa being God’s country and all…

The low point of the drive being  Nebraska–no offense Nebraskans but do you have a special grace to live there or something?

Then we entered something called “The Turnpike” WOWSERS!!  perfect paving-lots of space-no exits in the way of my daydreaming and no billboards!! smoooth sailing!  I even managed to look like I knew WHY I needed to take a ticket-and I had my $5.25 ready when I got off 100 plus miles later!  The coolest past of this whole deal? They are called service areas! A little not-even=quite an exit-with no other turns to confuse the bumpkins…you just glide off to find a BIG gas station with tons of extras and goodies inside and automatic doors and really great parking–also a McDonald’s with a perfect drivethrough in line with the on-ramp–no delay or directional memory required!!  Ya’ll ever seen those?  They were honostly like every 40 miles!  what are people driving that they need to stop that often?  I crossed all of South Dakota (did not find it entirely mentionable) and saw TWO rest stops TOTAL! Anyhoooo..a little zip off to pay a nice grandmotherly type lady who wished me a nice day now and then my exit for the hotel was on top of the payment spot-2 turns on top of that and we were there!  I checked in-opened the curtain and had a phone call from Old Woman herself!!  Perfect timing!!!

I met her in the hallway-and we started talking right away-and the talk about the drive ended FAST-we had too much else to say!  Funny thing?   We had both thrown a game into our bags before leaving just in case…She even put thought into hers and put Boggle back (remembering my spelling handicap)–Don’t know if what she brought was fun or not-we did not touch them!  We also brought gifts for each other–I gave he a lamo bag of Minnesota Wild RIce–good but generic gift-wise.  She brought me a Douey-Raimes Bible which required actually KNOWING me and what I like–and I LOVE it–so very poetic!  so very majestic! see how cool she is?

We decided to drive around until we found a nice place to eat…EASY decision on whose car to take–HERS was COOL!!

Try to ignore the missing plasticy bottom of the bumper part of the next-door truck–it was inadvertantly seperated in a snow-pulling incident this winter-it’s an easy fix which means low on the priority list.  We cruised in the cruiser and laughed and laughed–I saw 2 slugbugs in a row BAM BAM–we nearly joined a parade, and drove miles before spotted the oasis that is Red Lobster.  I really did think we were going in circles-ABM kept saying things like “I am DRAWN LEFT” and we kept passing a Quick Trip and a McDonald’s–I KNEW I was being kind of hickish thinking it was the same one each time but when she said there were at least TEN McDonald’s I was flabbergasted!  2 or 3 I can understand-for you bi citt slickers–but double digits? in the same town?  made me miss my little gravel road and the safety of my mailbox!  FUN drive though-because I could ride–I had NO IDEA how we would find the hotel back–I said I had the address someplace in my purse–my City slicker friend had it memorized!! (she also learned that I was not kidding when I said I was LEFT/RIGHT challenged)  ANYHOOO–we left the yummy food place (where the waitress seemed to think I might want to share my dessert with ABM (AS IF!! friendship is one thing but a choc chip lava cookie topped with ice cream is quite another!)  We ended up on an interstate kinda thinger and I yelled SOUTH and I KNEW SOUTH!!! I really did–it was a moment I shall never forget-that moment of being RIGHT directioally speaking–it felt GOOOOOD!!! with a zip,zip,zoop of the pT Cruiser we were back at the Hotel and the talk-fest began!

You know how you have fun friends and deep friends? people who you can talk to and people tha you are the listener?  ABM is the WHOLE PACKAGE baby!! And we covered it ALL!! Had lots of good ideas for funny bloggy pics too-but no gumption to really leave our fun to go get props!

We did talk all night (with a sock-tour break!)-napped for an hour and then breakfasted and tried for a few pics out of obligation to you folks-could not let you down totally! I laughed so much my cheeks hurt!  See how much alike we are-neither of us thought to take pics BEFORE being up all night and feeling frumpy/pillow-wrinkly.

Since we had a 12 YO snapping these pics (and everyone knows that 12 YOs add 30 lbs…) here is my fav…ain’t my friend cute?

OH YEAH!

we got a doggie too

We only talked to the OneAcre Homestead folks about half an hour-long enough to see how cool they are-get a few puppy tips and lots of slurps-and 4 hugs fron my boy!  She is sooo sweet and really took to Linden right away-he named her Lucy

Thanks ABM for making this trip so very worth it!